Who is “Average Joe” Albertan?

Jared Wesley | University of Alberta | jwesley@ualberta.ca

March 10, 2021

When most of us think about the “average Albertan,” our minds turn to public opinion polls. Surveys like Viewpoint Alberta suggest that the so-called “median voter” is located somewhere in the centre of the left-right spectrum.  Most Albertans favour robust social programs, low taxes (at least for themselves), and a balanced budget. Surveys  only take us so far, however, when it comes to understanding the typical Albertan.  

What does it mean to be average or typical or mainstream? What does it mean to be abnormal or atypical or  outside the mainstream?  

Our focus group research takes a novel approach. Rather than focusing on polling averages, we ask residents who they think the typical Albertan is. We ask them to draw these typical Albertans, tell us about the characters’ lives, and describe how these personas feel about politics in Alberta today.

We gave our participants a simple task: “draw us an Albertan.” Their drawings and ensuing group discussions reveal a lot about who Albertans view as the quintessential members of their political community. By asking participants how these typical Albertans feel about politics, we gain a better sense of the boundaries of acceptability in the province. Albertans’ views about what is desirable or possible are shaped by what they think “the average Joe” will support.

In Fall 2019, we conducted 35 focus groups across 26 communities, involving over 600 participants. In this Research Brief, we present the findings of 18 of those focus groups that made up Phase 1 of our study. From October to December 2019, we engaged over 150 Albertans from all walks of life (see Methodology and Appendix). Here is what we found.

What does the “quintessential Albertan” look like?

When we asked them to “draw an Albertan,” we were very surprised at the level of consensus among our  participants. According to them, the typical Albertan was a middle-aged man working in the agricultural or energy  sectors. Regardless of their own backgrounds or political predispositions, most participants drew very similar  characters, suggesting there is widespread agreement about what it means to “look Albertan.” 

• A vast majority (77 percent) of participants drew a man, while only 12 percent drew a woman (1). Of note,  only two male participants drew female Albertans. As one St. Paul participant noted about the drawings  in her focus group, ”they all are very similar, in fact it's kind of odd that there's no women, there's no  people of color…” 

• Most participants drew Albertans in their 30s (27 percent) or 40s (20 percent), which tracks closely with the actual provincial average (41.5 years-old). Only two participants drew children; intriguingly, both  drawings took place independently at the same focus group in Hanna. 

• One-in-four participants drew a married person (25 percent), while only 7 percent of drawings were  explicitly single. Many of the Albertans drawn had children (37 percent). 

• A quarter of all drawings featured farmers (25 percent). Cowboys (19 percent) and oil and gas workers (18 percent) were also popular. By contrast, very few drawings featured an Albertan in a corporate setting  or civil service position (3 percent each). 

• Even fewer participants (2 percent) drew a politician – Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed were the only ones  depicted - suggesting that elected leaders aren’t viewed as being typical Albertans. 

• Typical Albertans were drawn primarily outdoors in rural areas, near the mountains or foothills (25  percent), in wheat fields (11 percent), and/or next to a lake or river (5 percent). Barns (3 percent), oil  derricks (6 percent), and pumpjacks (3 percent) figured in some drawings. By contrast, only 2 percent of  drawings were in an urban setting. 

• Trucks also featured prominently in many of our participants’ drawings (12 percent). • The typical Albertan appears happy. Over half (51 percent) of characters were drawn with smiles on their  faces, far greater than the number that were portrayed as sad (5 percent), angry (2 percent), or stressed  (1 percent). 

• All told, very few participants (4 percent) drew themselves when they were asked to draw an Albertan. This suggests a sizeable disconnect between their personal and collective identities, which we’re exploring through future research.

I think it's cool how a lot of us have mountains, because we're in Alberta, a lot of them are blue  collar workers, trades, oil, this is what we see, right. This is what we're around. And it's kind of  cool how we are all [drawing] this. Maybe if we were in Toronto they'd all be lawyers, doctors,  in business suits. So, it's kind of cool.  – Lethbridge Participant

What’s in a name?

We also asked our participants to name the Albertan they drew. The word cloud in Figure 1 illustrates the most popular names applied to these drawings, with larger words representing more frequent mentions. The most popular names were: Joe (12 percent), Bob (6 percent), John, Richard, and Tom (3 percent each). One-third of participants gave their Albertan a biblical name (2), reflecting in part the province’s Christian heritage.

Figure 1. Most Popular First Names of Albertans Drawn

What is Joe like?

In their focus group discussions, participants became quite animated and detailed in their description of the Albertans they drew. There was considerable overlap in these backstories, and most participants reported being fairly familiar with people like Joe in their personal lives. The following is a composite sketch based on these conversations:

After sharing their drawings and backstories with the rest of their group, we asked participants to come to  consensus on which of the characters represented the “quintessential Albertan.” According to the instructions,  we asked the group: “did any one of these folks stick out as the quintessential Albertan? Is there one that jumps  out that really captures what it means to be an Albertan? Any one over the others?” Most groups arrived at  agreement within two minutes, selecting those drawings found in Figure 2. 

In general, most groups concluded that the quintessential Albertan was not really “the average Albertan, but he  is the one that people think of.” He’s “the everyman,” according to one Calgary participant, but he “doesn’t look  like the majority of Albertans.” He was seen as more of a stereotype or caricature than a real person, according  to many participants. But as one from Lethbridge put it, “I have this little saying and it's, ‘Stereotypes are based on truths.’”

How much power does Joe have?

We probed further, asking whether politics in Alberta seemed to revolve around people like Joe – whether  politicians and the media seemed to focus more on them, whether they tend to have more influence over policy making, and whether they reflect how people in other parts of Canada think of Albertans.  

Groups were divided over the question of how much political influence the quintessential Albertan wielded. Some  participants felt that people like Joe exerted considerable political clout, but that they are always asking for more.  “They’re the ones you hear about,” said one participant from Edmonton. “I feel like those are the ones that  politicians are speaking to in Alberta,” said another. Others felt that Joe was unaware of how much power he really has in Alberta’s political system, while still others said Joe had less power than he thought.  

Digging more deeply, we found participants generally agreed that Joe held the most sway at the provincial level,  and least at the federal level, which helped to explain his sense of alienation. Speaking about Joe, a St. Paul  participant noted, “I think in the last little while he feels he's been alienated or left out.”

Figure 2. “Quintessential Albertans” Selected by 18 Focus Groups

Based on their quintessential Albertan named “Dave,” here is a conversation among participants in Fort McMurray: 

• Participant 1: I think in the political climate right now, they are focused on Dave. 

• Participant 2: Provincially, they are now. Maybe it just swung back to Dave a bit. 

• Participant 3: I think the last United Conservative Party platform was centred around getting Dave back  to work. And the fact that Dave was out of work and why was Dave out of work and who wasn’t doing  anything to get Dave back to work. So I think that's how that platform was kind of centered… If you  packaged it up nice and neat and marketed it, I think that’s kind of what their message was.  

• Participant 4: I think people like Dave and his generation are feeling that they’re more of a driver now in Alberta.

I would say it depends on the area of Alberta that he would be from. I think if he's in Southern  Alberta, down this way, then he probably has a fair amount of influence. I think if he's Calgary North, up to Edmonton or just past there, probably not much at all. – Lethbridge Participant 

I don't think he has a lot of influence because although he's older and he's been around, he's in agricultural background and the numbers of population of people actually work in that area, I  think are smaller compared to others industries within the province... There's less of him, even  though he might be quintessential from the outside looking in. His numbers are not as much as  the other sectors. – Lethbridge Participant

Participants also felt that Joes that worked in the oilfields or trades were more influential than those who farmed.  “I think the agriculture economy has been forgotten by the all levels of politics,” said one participant from Edmonton. “I mean, agriculture's always in the media, but the farmers still don't get what they need, what they  want,” said another from Lethbridge. “I grew up from a farming background, and I see even my folks they still deal  with agriculture politics all the time, and it's ludicrous what they put up with.”  

A participant from Hanna added some perspective, however, suggesting, “I bet the single mothers who are struggling now outnumber the farmers who are struggling.” When asked whether she thought most Albertans pictured a single mother when they think of what it means to be Albertan, she responded, “They probably should be, but I’m pretty sure they’re not.” 

In most focus groups, there was a sense that the average Joe felt like he was falling behind – behind others in Alberta society and behind previous generations. But there was disagreement about whether this status loss was real or perceived.

Consider this exchange among participants at an Edmonton focus group, who chose “Tom” as their quintessential  Albertan: 

• Participant 1: I think Tom thinks he has very little power… He’s very angry about everything going on in  the oil industry, and he’s angry about the economy, and he’s angry about having no job… His dad was in  the oil field, and his dad before him was in the oil field, and now it’s suffering. He’s in a state where he  feels like he has no voice.  

• Participant 2: Tom has an attitude where he’s like, “it doesn’t’ seem to matter what I say anymore.”  • Participant 3: I think he’s got a fair amount [of influence] because the Toms talk to their friends, and rural  vote I think is significant in Alberta. 

• Participant 1: But he talks about, “I’m working,” or “We’re getting screwed.” The politicians that can play  into that I think will probably get listened to. 

• Participant 4: I don’t think so, I don’t think so…. Because Tom's never really asked for anything other than  the fact that he just wants to have a good life with his family, and security in his job. But I think the people  that are making more noise about their quality, and their minority, and their status, or the ones that are  making the most noise are the ones that are getting the most attention. Tom doesn't make a lot of noise.  He just wants to drink beer and go play hockey. 

One participant from Hanna offered a unique perspective on the feelings of many rural Albertans who feel  left behind in the province’s political discussions: “I will say that, because I come from the city coming out to  rural Alberta. I've been privy to an experience that I wouldn't have had or understood had I not come here.  There is just the way things, I think a lot of policies and procedures and the way things are done are very city  centric and really just don't capture the rural perspective. And I admit that I was definitely guilty of that and  so that's one of the things I'm grateful for, coming to a small town.” 

Another participant from Fort McMurray was suspicious of politicians’ motivations in focusing so intently on  quintessential Albertans like Tom or Bob or Dave. “May I say that sometimes I feel like they’re not focusing  so much on people but the money situation? Sometimes I feel like they miss the people like Bob.” 

I don't know if they are somewhat aimed at Bob as they are to a certain extent maybe using  Bob. They are using him as a prop. So that's why Bob does not feel like he has any information  or say because they're just, sort of like without his consent, they're using him as an example… I don't think anybody ever really wants to do anything for Bob, they just want to use Bob and  to make their own point. So they're not concerned, so much concerned about Bob as they are about "How am I going to use Bob to get into power and then once I'm in power, well, I'm just going to run my own agenda.  – Fort McMurray Participant 

I'm a little bit of a skeptic on some of it…. Nobody cared about Dave until it [the oil price  downturn] started hitting other people. Right? Dave's one we get to look at… but there's other people's pockets are getting hit hard, and that's why Dave has to go back to work. I don't think it has too much to do with Dave.  – Fort McMurray Participant

A conversation in Hanna delved more deeply into the distinction between what’s talked about in Alberta politics,  and what’s actually done. When asked whether politicians spoke to “Darren’s” issues, participants said yes, but: 

• Participant 1: I don’t think they walk the talk, though. 

• Moderator: They’re talking about it… 

• Participant 2: But they’re not doing it. 

• Participant 3: They’re not doing it. 

• Participant 4: Not doing anything… 

• Participant 3: I think that here in Alberta, a lot of the issue is that the ones who are governing right now,  they themselves have not been in the position that Darren is in. Where they don't have an understanding  of how stressful it is to not know if you're going to have that income. To not know if when you take over  that piece of land, if you're going to be able to sustain it or take care of your family. It's just that they 

aren't giving him that reassurance... 

• Participant 2: They're not giving any alternatives. You know you got... well things are closing down, the  economy is going down. But they're not saying, "Okay, we have this. We can help you train for this type  of position. Or we have this coming open. Or we're going to invest in this industry to help off-set." But  they're not, they have no plan for any of that. 

• Participant 1: It's talk big but not for what's happening to the individual, I don't think. That's the thing were not seeing. Yes, we're hearing oil talk all the time. Pipelines and no pipelines and what it's doing to our economy of the province but they're not talking individuals… There's no jobs that will sustain a family and they never again sustain the lifestyle they're used to.

[Joe] votes. He always votes. And I'd say that his party probably wins in is riding. But I think  that he probably feels like Alberta and the world is changing and that he's becoming a  secondary citizen when he's always left here. – St. Paul Participant

What are Joe’s politics?

After they had arrived at consensus on which of their drawings was the “quintessential Albertan,” we asked participants to tell us how “Joe” would feel, think, and react to different political issues and situations. From a series of activities, we gained a sense that Joe is largely apolitical and libertarian. “I don’t see him being political. I don’t think he talks politics,” said one participant. “He doesn’t do focus groups,” said another.

“Bob has three kids to raise. He probably has a mortgage, he has car payments, so it's probably pretty difficult for Bob to just take off from work and go out to meet the local politician or something like that. He's probably pretty focused on ensuring that his family’s welfare is okay.” – Fort McMurray Participant

According to our participants, Joe doesn’t engage in politics very often. He distrusts politicians and doesn’t interact  with them much. But when he does, it’s to stand up to government interference in his life. This creates a puzzle for those trying to understand Joe’s mindset. On one hand, Joe wants politicians to pay attention to and help  address his problems, particularly when it comes to the economy and jobs. Yet he wants government to stay out  of what he considers to be the ‘private’ parts of his life. 

Overall, Joe is conservative in several respects, notably in his reverence for familiarity and personal responsibility,  as well as in his support for conservative political parties, as seen in this exchange from a St. Paul focus group: 

• Moderator: How does he vote? 

• Participant 1: I think he votes conservative. 

• Participant 2: Oh my goodness, with his pitchfork. 

• Participant 3: That’s the politics. 

But Joe’s values stop short of embracing social and moral conservatism. True to his cowboy, farmer, or roughneck exterior, Joe has a small but close circle of friends and family. But he doesn’t subscribe to the sort of “family  values” that characterized his childhood home, according to our participants. And he doesn’t see the need to  impose his values on others. Joe is able to empathize with people in his close circle quite readily, which helps to explain a few of his somewhat surprising attitudes toward social issues like substance use and health care. Here  are some themes that arose from our focus groups. 

Joe thinks hard work is the key to success.

According to our participants, Joe is a firm believer in personal responsibility and a solid work ethic. When asked  to summarize Joe’s philosophy, one participant from Fort McMurray put it this way: “The harder you work, the further you get.” In one exercise, we asked participants to view a series of photographs. Each depicted a different  person in a different circumstance, ranging from the CEO of General Motors to someone begging for money on the street. Participants were then asked how Joe would describe that person’s life path. Invariably, participants described how Joe viewed wealth, success, and goodness as tied to hard work. This has echoes in prosperity doctrine, which has deep roots in Alberta’s political culture. Yet, Joe’s perception of the homeless person demonstrates considerable nuance. In more than one focus group, participants noted that “Joe knows guys like that” – fellow farmers or oil and gas workers who, through little to no fault of their own, had fallen victim to substance use. This illustrates the limits to personal responsibility in Joe’s mind, as well as the importance of personal connection in shaping his worldview. 

Joe thinks kids should be raised the way he was: family first.

Participants described Joe as a family man. We asked participants how Joe would react to things like a mandatory helmet law for kids’ recreational activities or a “no-fail” policy in schools. Responses were nearly unanimous: Joe didn’t have to wear a helmet, and he had to pass all of his classes the hard way, and so should today’s children. “Kids have to learn” said one Calgarian of Joe’s approach; “kids need to fail,” said an Edmontonian. In general, Joe feels like his hard-knocks parenting style is better than many others’, but he doesn’t feel the urge to impose his values on other families… as long as they treat him with the same deference. “Don’t tell me how to raise my kids,” remarked one Edmonton participant mimicking Joe. Interestingly, when asked how Joe feels about spanking, participants felt he had a nuanced view of corporal punishment. Personally opposed to spanking (based on his own experience as a child), our participants thought Joe would nonetheless oppose a government ban on the practice. Joe draws a firm line between spanking and “hitting your kid to hurt them,” said one participant from Hanna, considering the latter to be above the pale and deserving of jail time.

Joe believes in tradition, but is accepting of others opting to change.

According to our participants, Joe is proud of his “heritage”. When asked how Joe reacted to updates made to the Canadian national anthem – to replace “all thy sons command” with “all of us command” – participants suggested he was confused about why the change was necessary. When asked how he’d feel about changing “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays,” participants suggested Joe would have a knee-jerk negative reaction. Rooted in a reverence for “the way things have always been done” rather than out of religious obligation, Joe would see the change as unnecessary. “Tradition doesn’t change overnight” for Joe, according to one Calgary participant. Yet, Joe did not seem not adamantly opposed to change. Several participants in Fort McMurray, Hanna, and St. Paul noted Joe’s openness to addressing climate change in order to protect future generations, for instance. He is fine with other people using new lyrics and greetings, but doesn’t feel the need to change his own behavior. This distinguishes Joe from his father, who many participants referred to as “Joe Sr.” When asked how Joe Jr. would react to a Pride Parade in his hometown, for instance, participants said he’d likely not attend but wouldn’t oppose it. Joe Sr., on the other hand, would likely protest the event. This suggests a generational shift in what it means to be Albertan.

Joe sees Alberta as exceptional.

Somewhat surprisingly, we found little evidence of a strong “Alberta-first” mentality in participants’ descriptions of Joe. Only one participant included an Alberta flag in their drawing, for instance, and while there was some sense that Joe was proud to be Albertan, he was equally proud to be Canadian. According to participants, Joe is decidedly not a Wexiteer. When asked whether Joe would attend a Wexit rally or put a Wexit bumper sticker on his truck, our participants scoffed at the idea that he is a separatist.  

This said, participants suggested Joe views Alberta as an exceptional place to live. In one activity, we handed  participants a blank map of Canada and several markers. Viewing the country through Joe’s eyes, they were told to place a series of labels on various regions of Canada, as Joe would do. All labels placed on the West in general, and Alberta in particular, were positive in nature. During their discussions, for instance, participants talked about how Joe would wear the label “redneck” with pride. Depending on the focus group, Joe gave various other parts of Canada mixed reviews (see Figure 3). Participants felt Joe viewed Quebec, and to a lesser extent BC, with the most derision. Due to his personal connection with colleagues from Atlantic Canada, Joe often described that  region as “hard working.”

Joe sees an important but limited role for government in Alberta.

Our participants viewed Joe as a firm believer in a small but strong government. In particular, they described Joe as a champion of universal health care and a solid social safety net. These feelings were particularly evident when asked how Joe felt about seniors, single parents, the unemployed, and those with substance dependence. In each of these cases, participants suggested Joe knew someone in these circumstances. When asked about why Joe thinks some seniors or single parents struggle to make ends meet, or why some middle-aged people are out of work, participants noted that it wasn’t entirely their own fault. The world had changed around them, in many cases. Interestingly, participants thought Joe would see space for government to help them meet those challenges through long-term care supports, job retraining, and childcare. Participants said Joe felt those people had ‘paid into the system’ and were ‘entitled to get something back’ from the government.

Figure 3. How “Joe” Labels the Regions of Canada

What can Joe tell us about Alberta political culture?

Overall, our participants’ responses reflect their understanding of what the typical Albertan would say or do. This helps us understand what Albertans view as being in the mainstream of their political culture.

Through this process, our participants defined the contours of political correctness in Alberta. They demonstrated how the quintessential Albertan would react, highlighting the boundaries of acceptable expression and behavior. We call this “political culture.”

Political culture is embodied in symbols, myths, stereotypes, and the stories we tell ourselves. It’s personified by who we think are the quintessential members of our community. Taken together, these images create a sense of what it means to “be Albertan.” Regardless of their own personal backgrounds and beliefs, most of our focus group participants agreed that the quintessential Albertan was a middle-aged, conservative white man working in agriculture or oil and gas. This tells us much about who residents view as being in the “mainstream” of Alberta politics and, by omission, who are “outsiders.” 

Governments and leaders think this way, too, whether purposefully or subconsciously. Like citizens, they are  guided by a sense of what "Joe the Farmer" or "Al the Oilworker" will accept. Would Al or Joe – or “Martha and Henry” or “Bernard the Roughneck” – accept a provincial sales tax? No? Then it's not worth sticking my neck out to propose it.

In this sense, Joe’s boundaries become Albertans’. His view of the desirable becomes their collective view of the possible. Albertans’ perception that Joe’s worldview predominates makes them think there is no alternative but to pursue politics within the limits of what he thinks is acceptable. This places real constraints on political creativity and policy innovation.

Is this Joe’s Alberta forever?

Theories suggest political cultures like Alberta’s seldom change. They are like climate, not weather. According to  some, a society’s underlying values only shift when they fail to make sense of, or to solve, an existential threat to  the community as a whole. Others suggest cultures crack when members realize that the norms underlying the  community are out of sync with the values of most people who live there. Still others argue that culture shifts occur when a community senses its politics are holding it back from its potential, or allowing it to fall behind its neighbours. In any of these cases, anomalies start to accumulate – glitches start to challenge the legitimacy of  the dominant way of thinking. 

It’s difficult to tell when these tipping points are reached. But they almost always occur when a transformative event – war, depression, famine, etc. – throws old ways of thinking into sharper relief. 

This is what makes studying Alberta political culture so important at this particular moment. Low oil prices and a transnational environmental movement are challenging the foundations of the province’s political economy. At  the same time, the collective demands of surviving a global pandemic have tested the small-government ethos of personal responsibility that has so long defined the province’s underlying value system. Combined, these forces represent the most significant challenges to Joe’s predominance over what it means to be, think, or behave like an Albertan.

How is Joe doing?

This helps us to understand the depth of status loss many Albertans feel at this point in the province’s history. It’s not just Joe that feels his livelihood is threatened. He is the personification of the broader political community, which means his losses are collective ones. Individuals who identify most closely with Joe on a personal level will be most deeply affected, with many seeking to turn back the clock (“make Alberta great again”) or to abandon the broader community entirely (“Wexit”). But the entire community can feel the malaise.

We have seen this sort of collective cognitive dissonance or community identity crisis play out in other countries, with jarring effects.

This is not unfamiliar. The populist surge in the American Rust Belt and Coal Country had echoes in the Brexit movement in the British Industrial Heartland. In these instances, economic and demographic changes left historically-privileged groups feeling like they were “being left behind” by the forces of globalization. To the extent that a sizeable number of Albertans empathize with “Joe Albertan” the same way that Americans felt for “Joe the Plumber” and Britons identified with “Essex Man” says something about the province’s political path.

Next Steps

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Joe and how Albertans relate to him. In the coming months, we will return to the field with virtual and (eventually) more in-person focus groups to gain an even better sense of who Joe is and how he helps shape our collective sense of what it means to be Albertan. In particular, we will measure the  effect the pandemic has had on Albertans’ perceptions of Joe and what he means to their community. And we  will also examine what it means not to be Joe. 

This research will include a new study of how Alberta youth internalize the province’s political culture, and an in  depth examination of the political personas that define Alberta politics (like Martha and Henry). We also aim to take this research beyond Alberta, studying political culture in the rest of Canada and Australia.  

Stay tuned to our website (https://www.commongroundpolitics.ca/) and follow us on Twitter (@cgroundpolitics) for our latest findings.

Methodology

Following a series of pilot tests on university campuses, a total of 18 focus groups were held in 6 communities  between October 30 to December 11, 2019: Edmonton (6 sessions), Calgary (4), Lethbridge (2), Hanna (2), Fort  McMurray (2), and St. Paul (2). Focus group participants were recruited using a combination of existing panels  and random-digit dialing. Quota sampling was used to match each community’s general demographic make-up in  terms of age, gender, ethnicity (white, non-white), and income (see Appendix). Focus groups contained between  6 and 8 participants, all of whom were compensated for their participation. 

To inspire participants to express their views about their province’s political culture, the opening activity used the  projective technique of personification. Participants were provided with paper and a marker and asked to “draw  an Albertan.” According to the researcher’s prompts, “that Albertan could be doing something, wearing  something, holding something, standing next to something….” Participants were asked to label anything in their 

drawings that might not be clear to others. After providing their characters with proper names (e.g., Joe, Al),  participants shared with the group their characters’ life backstories. The researcher then facilitated a discussion  about which of the various characters is the “quintessential Albertan,” meaning the one who receives the most  attention and wields the most influence over politics in the province. The chosen persona was used throughout  the remainder of the activities, which probed how they would react under various conditions.  

A team of three (3) research assistants undertook the quantitative coding of drawings and focus group transcripts.  A random selection of 20 percent of drawings was chosen for inter-coder reliability testing; agreement exceeded  80 percent. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using a three-stage manual coding technique involving three  independent researchers (Wesley, 2021) (see Figure 4).

This project was approved by the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board (Pro00088267). For more information, visit: https://www.commongroundpolitics.ca/focus-groups.

Figure 4. Three-Stage Qualitative Coding Method

Endnotes

1. The remaining 11 percent of drawings were not clearly identified as being male or female.

2. We used the following list of biblical names: https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/all-biblical.

Appendix: Common Ground Focus Group Participants, November/December 2019 (n=151)